Reviewed by Eric Saeger
First album in eight years for the 43-year-old folkie, who became a more prominent strand of the genre’s fibre upon her production and song-slot on the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. We’re looking at a step back in her progression after her getting stuck in an empty void of music she deemed good enough to record, and just point of order, in case you’re not sure, no, it’s not a positive sign when someone can’t come up with a measly ten-odd decent tunes in eight years. And so she and longtime crony Dave Rawlings have gone back to basics, away from the standard jam-band setup of her 2003 LP Soul Journey, back to her idea of basics, meaning a sparse but stout unpluggedness designed for her voice, which is what it would sound like if k.d. lang had a little Janis Joplin hoarseness. Fans who’ll gravitate to this Appalachian, country and blues fricassee mostly seem to like the lone-spotlight Neil Young vibe she proffers, and they’ll dig that the drum kit’s gone. That’s nice and all, but despite the sketchy production of the rockers on Soul Journey, it was more conducive to her ruggedness – either that or the songs on this one all sort of blow; literally nothing on this album grabbed my attention at first listen, which is sort of required in this setting.
Grade: C
